Threshold
'' |image= |series= |production=40840-132 |producer(s)= |story=Michael De Luca |script=Brannon Braga |director=Alexander Singer |imdbref=tt0708995 |guests=Raphael Sbarge as Michael Jonas, Mirron E. Willis as Rettik, Tarik Ergin as Lt. Ayala (uncredited) |previous_production=Alliances |next_production=Meld |episode=VGR S02E15 |airdate=29 January 1996 |previous_release=Alliances |next_release= (VGR) Meld (Overall) Crossfire |story_date(s)= 49373.4 (2372) |previous_story=Crossfire |next_story=Return to Grace }} =Summary= Voyager's crew discovers a rare, more stable form of dilithium that they postulate could power a warp drive beyond Warp 10. This would allow Voyager to reach the Alpha Quadrant near instantaneously. Although holodeck simulations prove disastrous, Lieutenant Paris comes up with an idea after an off-the-cuff discussion with Neelix. The next simulation is successful and a shuttlecraft, dubbed the Cochrane, is prepared for a full test flight. The Doctor identifies a rare medical condition in Lieutenant Paris indicating a 2% chance that he will suffer lethal effects from the test-flight and recommends assigning Ensign Kim as test-pilot. Paris convinces Captain Janeway to allow him to fly the shuttle despite the small risk. Paris successfully breaks the Warp 10 barrier with the Cochrane, rapidly disappearing from Voyager's sensors. The crew begins to try to track the shuttle, but soon the Cochrane reappears, Paris unconscious at the controls. Once awake, Paris explains that he had seen everything at every point in space, and the shuttle's database similarly contains a massive amount of information about the Delta Quadrant. However, Paris starts to suffer allergic reactions, and he is raced to Sickbay, where the Doctor determines that Paris is now allergic to common water. Paris's body soon changes again, and no longer can process oxygen, forcing the Doctor to create a special environment that Paris can exist in. Paris's body continues its strange transformations, the Doctor postulating that he is becoming a new form of life. Before the Doctor can use an "anti-proton" treatment to return Paris to his human form, Paris escapes, disrupts Voyager's internal systems, and kidnaps Janeway on the Cochrane. By the time the crew restore the damage Paris had done, the Cochrane has taken off to Warp 10. As Voyager follows the shuttle's trail, eventually coming to a planet covered with swamps, the Doctor explains that the mutation patterns in Paris' DNA are consistent with those of evolution. Near the shuttle, they discover two amphibian beings, with trace DNA of Paris and Janeway. The two have mated and have had three offspring. The crew recover their transformed crew-members to be returned to human by the Doctor, and leave the offspring behind. =Errors and Explanations= Nit Central # Sharon Jordan on Friday, February 26, 1999 - 9:25 am: I'm just wondering if Tuvok and Chakotay, could capture the mutated versions of Janeway and Paris, and cure them, but not their offspring? I mean, if Janeway and Paris could be reversed back, couldn't they turn these children into humans, and see how they turned out. I would think at least Janeway and Paris would be curious, and concerned, of these offspring and wonder how they would be as humans. Am I mad to think about this? Seniram 11:43, January 2, 2018 (UTC) YES! The offspring were very unlikely to have enough fully humans DNA, if any. # BrianB on Friday, July 09, 1999 - 7:43 am: The warp-10 barrier was broken in TOS'sThe Changeling & By Any Other Name and TNG's Where No One Has Gone Before & The Nth Degree and perhaps more. Having listed those examples, why does Paris evolve when the others haven't? Seniram 11:43, January 2, 2018 (UTC) In the time of TOS, there was a different warp scale, where the Warp 10 Barrier didn’t, as such, even exist!. In Where No One Has Gone Before, the crew could have been protected by the Traveller, and the trip in The Nth Degree was carried out using a different method of Faster Than Light travel. # Harry Kim says "someone's depressurizing shuttle bay two", and then someone steals a shuttle from shuttle bay one, which is the only shuttle bay Voyager has. Category:EpisodesCategory:Voyager